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The Truth Behind The Nude Anna Kournikova Photos in This Month's Penthouse Magazine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Penthouse Magazine on Tuesday apologized for misidentifying Anna Kournikova (news - web sites) as a woman pictured topless in its June issue, but a spokesman for the Russian tennis star said she had filed a lawsuit against the magazine despite the apology.

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Reuters Photo
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AP Photo
Anna Kournikova

"In our mind the apology was as false as the photos," said David Schwab, a spokesman for sports management agency Octagon, which represents Kournikova.

Schwab said the tennis star filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against General Media Communications Inc., which owns Penthouse, in U.S. federal court in California, charging the company with defamation, false light invasion of privacy, misappropriation of identity and other violations of her rights under federal and state laws.

False light invasion of privacy occurs when information published about a person is offensive and is published without regard for whether the information is false or would portray them in a false light.

A copy of the lawsuit was not immediately available.

The written apology was issued one day after Judith Soltesz-Benetton, the daughter-in-law of Italian fashion designer Luciano Benetton, sued the magazine, saying she was the woman in the photographs.

The suit, which seeks more than $10 million in damages, alleges that the photographs were published without the plaintiff's authorization and caused her great embarrassment and humiliation.

Penthouse allegedly obtained photographs of Soltesz-Benetton sunbathing topless in Miami about seven years ago. The suit claims the magazine published a dozen pictures of the plaintiff, misidentifying her as Kournikova.

After the suit was filed, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin barred the magazine from posting the photographs on its Internet Web site. He also ordered that no further copies of the magazine be distributed before a hearing next week.

Penthouse said in the press release that it misidentified Kournikova and the photographs were pictures of "another woman" and that it offers "heartfelt apologies to both women."

"In over 30 years of publishing this magazine we have never made an error of anything approaching this magnitude. We can only say, 'We're sorry' to the two women," Penthouse said in a written statement.

'CROCODILE TEARS'

Judd Burstein, Soltesz-Benetton's lawyer said the statement "is about three weeks late and $10 million short" and the magazine was apologizing with "crocodile tears."

The June issue, whose cover carries the headline "Exclusive Anna Kournikova Caught Close Up on Nude Beach," hit news stands last Tuesday and some 1.2 million copies are in circulation.

Penthouse said that before deciding to run the photographs it examined a video of the woman sunbathing and compared it with photographs of Kournikova. It also interviewed the photographer who shot the film.

"The fact is that we were totally convinced that the video and his story were genuine. We were wrong!," the statement said.

It was funny when I went to buy this issue. I went to Fry's Electronics in Industry. I got a 128 MB Sony Card and this issue. I was with my girl so at least I didn't look like a total perv, unless the dude thought I was gonna jack off to the porno and take 128 MB's of pictures. Wait maybe I did look like a perv. But anyways so the guy has to go behind this gate to get the memory card. So instead of scanning the Penthouse putting it in a bag to be discreet...So while he was back there everyones walking buy and all they see is this Penthouse porno mag. I don't know it was funny if you were there.

Originally posted by Pistol Ah the porno buying stories of pervs everywhere.

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the guy at the porn shop around here doesnt like me much
ive been in there everyday for a week returning videos ive bought
i buy them get them home and they dont work!
he thinks im up to something im sure of it
but hes a dirty old man with a hag wife

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